Letter 2092: I write to inform you that all the burdens and encumbrances which had been improperly imposed upon your monastery...

To Luminosus the abbot. [The following is a summary of the letter's contents, partly quoting the privilege, much of it garbled in the source text:] He writes that all [...] taxes(?) be removed from that monastery, so that there the divine work may be carried out with the utmost tranquility and devotion [...] of the churches and monasteries [...] and that it be performed peacefully. [...] he could not be ordained, [the matter] is to be settled before the chosen abbots and other Fathers who fear God, without voluntary delay, by means of the most sacred Gospels. But when the abbot of any congregation has died, let no outsider be ordained, but only one from that same congregation, whom the harmonious society of the brethren shall have chosen for itself by its own free will, and who shall have been elected without deceit or any venality. But if they are unable to find a suitable person among themselves, let them carefully choose for themselves in like manner from other monasteries one to be ordained. Nor, once an abbot has been appointed, let any person whatsoever be set over [the monastery] on any occasion, unless perhaps when crimes are present--which God forbid--that the sacred canons are shown to punish. Equally, however, it is to be observed that against the abbot's will [the brethren] are not to be removed(?) to other monasteries to be ordained, or to sacred orders, or to the office of the clerical state; and the monks thereafter ought not [...]. We also altogether forbid that inventories of property or of the monastery be drawn up by the bishops in the manner of ecclesiastical [registers]. But if, when the matter requires it, the abbot [...]. [The letter proper:] Gregory to Luminosus, abbot of the monastery of Saint Thomas of Ariminum [Rimini]. We have gladly received your petition and that of your congregation, granting effect to your prayers in accordance with the statutes of the Fathers and the form of law. For to Castorius, our brother and fellow bishop, our injunction having been sent--the letter [being directed] to him [and] to his successors, and [...]--be diligent in the work of God, and continually devote your effort to prayer, lest there should seem to be sought rather a security of mind for you in prayer, but wrongly--which God forbid--an episcopal strictness evaded by those dwelling [there]. [The following are the editor's critical notes, not part of the letter: "July, indiction 14. In the old Colbert manuscript it is dated 'on the day... indiction 415.' In the printed editions: 'in the month of July, indiction 15.' We suspect these notes of time to be false; the reason has already been stated elsewhere. But because this letter is reported in the Tyronian collection of Saint Gall and in Royal Codex 3800 in a far different manner than in the printed editions, and to it is attached a charter concerning the privileges of monasteries, we have taken care to publish both as an old monument. It is read in Baronius under the name of a constitution concerning the exemption or exception of monks. ...He confirms the prohibition from custom, book 6, letter 46; but here he discloses the genuine reason, lest in the retreats of the servants of God, etc. He freely grants that masses be celebrated in the monastery by presbyters with the bishop's permission; but he most carefully guards against the bishop's holding public masses there, for a twofold cause openly expressed in the very context of the letter itself. See book 3, letter 63; book 5, letter 38; book 6, letter 46. Letter 40.--In the first Tyronian collection, 'of Saint Andrew.'"]

AD LUMINOSUM ABBATEN. Scribit omnia graramina a monasterio illins ablata, ul ibi divinum opus $umma lranquillitate ac devotione ecclesiarum et monasteriorum evenerit , et. pacifice C peragatur. non potuerit ordinari, apud electos 'abbates et alios Patires limentes Deum, sine vyoluntaria dilatione me- diis sacrosanciis Eyangeliis finiatur. Deſuncio vero abbale cnjusquam copgregationis, non extraneus nisi de eadem congregatione, quem sibi prop ia voluntate concars ſratrum socielas elegerit, et qgi electus ſuerit Sine dolo vel venalitate aliqua , ordinetur. Quod 8i _ aplam inter se personam invenire nequeunt, $0ler- 4er $ibi .de aliis monasteriis similiter eligant ordi- nandum. Neque conslituto abbate GQ&4 quecunque persana qualibet occasione preponalur, nisi ſorie exstaniibus criminibus, quod absit, quz sacri cano- nes punire monstrantur. Pariter autem custodien- dum est ut invito abbate ad ordinanda alia monaste- Gregorius Luminoso abbati monasteriisancti * The» me 0e Arimino. Petitionem tuam congregationisque tuz libenter 8y$Cepimus, 8ecundum slatuta Patrum jurigque ſor- mam tuis precibus accommodantes effectum. Castorio siquidem fratri et coepiscopo nostro, nodtra proe- ceplione (ransmissa ei epistola 8uccess0ribus cjus, et ria aut ordiues sacros vel clericatus officium 1olli D fectis, in GOSH Dei opere estote 80lliciti , et assidue exinde monachi non debeant. Descriptiones quoque rerum aut monaslerii ab episcopis ecclesiaslicas fieri omnino negamus. Sed $i, quando res exigit, abbas Juni, ind. 14. In Colb. vet., data in die... indict. 415. lu Vulgalis : Mense Julio , indict. 15. Quas temporis notas ſalsas suspicamur ; qua rFatione vero , jam alibi dictum. Quia autem hec epistola in 'Tyron. S. Gat. el in Cod. Regio 3800 longe alio modo refertur quam in Vulgalis, eique attexitur charta de privilegiis mo- naSteriorum, urrumque vYelus monumentum edendum curavimus. Lergitur apud Baron. svb nomine consli- luti de exemplione vel excepitione monachorum © Per modum tiluli mayjori charactere. De privilegiis, ec. operam orationi date, ne non videatur magis yobiy « quzsita mentis in oratione securitas, sed male, quod absit, degentibus episcopalis evitata districtio » 3. Prohibitionem firmat ex consnetudine lib. v1, episl. 46; hic vero rationem aperit genuiaam, ne in 8erro- rum Dei recessibns, etc. Ut missz2 in monasterio 3 presbyteris cum episcopi licentia celebrentur conce- dit lubens ; at ne episcopus miss3$ ihi publ:cas facial, cayet $umnmopere , ob causam duplicem in ipso ept- $tolz contextu aperte expressam. Vide lib. mn, epist 63, lib. y, epist. 38, lib. v1, epi-t. 46. Eerisr. XL. — * Jn 1 Telter., sancti Andre@.